Radically changing a large company's culture is a decade-long endeavor. A faster, more effective approach is to identify the organization's existing positive cultural DNA. The UniCredit CEO interviewed over 20,000 employees to find their core values, then built his transformation strategy to amplify those strengths.

To ensure cultural consistency while scaling, A16Z codifies its values in a document that every new hire must sign. This is followed by a personal one-hour briefing from a co-founder, making the culture explicit and non-negotiable from day one.

Brands meticulously map the customer journey but often ignore the employee experience. To build a strong culture, apply the same brand principles to every employee touchpoint—from the job offer to their first day—to ensure everyone is aligned and delivering on the brand's promise.

Instead of letting new hires spend months learning the ropes, aim for them to be organizationally competent in three days. This forces the company to meticulously document all processes, roles, and assets in a central place like Notion, eradicating inefficient "tribal knowledge" and accelerating a new team member's impact.

Don't aim for a universally liked culture. Instead, present your core beliefs so provocatively during onboarding that new hires must immediately decide if they are fully aligned. This forces a clear "in or out" choice, preventing cultural dilution and future performance issues. The goal is for them to say "I love it" or "I'm not aligned."

AT&T's CEO argues that shifting strategy is straightforward: communicate the rationale, set objectives, and align incentives. True cultural change is far slower and harder, requiring new values to be constantly reinforced in every single talent process—from recruiting and promotions to performance feedback. It's a "drip of water every day."

'Culture add' is insufficient if new hires with different perspectives remain siloed. The goal should be 'culture multiply,' fostering intentional interaction and mutual influence between new hires and the existing culture. This creates a dynamic tension that fosters growth, rather than just filling a gap.

Changing an entrenched culture is daunting. The best approach is to start small. Identify a group of ambassadors, run a focused pilot project aligned with the desired new culture, learn quickly, and use its success to spread change organically rather than forcing a large-scale overhaul.

Culture is not a top-down mandate but the sum of employee actions. These actions are driven by individual beliefs, which are directly shaped by past workplace experiences. To change culture, leaders must create new, positive experiences that shift those underlying beliefs.